Pages tagged "Asia and oceania"

At the end of an unusual election campaign, New Zealand's Mixed-Member Proportional Representation (MMP) electoral system has delivered Kiwis a strong mandate for the current government, with the first time a single party has won a majority of seats since the nation replaced U.S.-style plurality voting elections with MMP in 1993. The election also demonstrated many of the advantages that such fair representation voting systems have over the single-member plurality systems so often used in American elections.

Australia's Senate is elected by a method of ranked choice voting that forces voters to rank every candidate on the ballot. But after a variety of quirky minor parties have made their way into the Senate, it might be time to allow voters the freedom to not rank all candidates.

In India's election of the 16th Lok Sabha, the BJP appeared to win a landslide victory, winning a majority of seats. In reality, India's winner-take-all system generated significant disproportionality, artificially inflating BJP's mandate.

Tasmanian House of Assembly elections have been decided using ranked choice voting in multi-member districts for over 100 years. This year's contest once again demonstrated the value of such systems for ensuring fair representation for voters of all stripes, even as a significant shift in power occurred.